We read The Australian so you don’t have to. Let’s sum up today’s edition …
There was the front-page “exclusive” by chief ABC attack dog Christian Kerr and colleague Jared Owens, who got Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to say the Australia Network is “struggling” because, well, it’s looking at acquiring programming from Sky News (as it does from plenty of other networks). And a news report from Nick Leys (the journalist who yesterday joined the ABC as a spinner) on the ABC’s concessions on reports of asylum seeker harm.
Plus conservative warrior (and former ABC board member) Janet Albrechtsen’s predictable 1165-word spray on bias and malpractice at the broadcaster. (“Eight years later, the ABC under [managing director Mark] Scott has failed on every measure.”) And Sky News presenter Peter van Onselen dismissing conspiracy theories around criticism of the broadcaster over a thorough 1670 words.
There’s the accompanying editorial, of course. (“The ABC’s fascination for ascribing the actions of other journalists to political or commercial motives is a worry because it seems to be a convenient excuse for avoiding facts and it provides a disturbing insight into how they think journalism works.”) And that nasty score-settling Cut and Paste column, with another 628 words of ridicule.
That’s 5583 words. In today’s edition alone.
And yet we’re expected to believe this line from van Onselen’s diatribe:
“To assume that News Corporation’s commercial interests played a role in editorialising about the Australia Network is a conspiracy theory on a grand scale.”
Pull the other one, Peter.
Well, thanks Crikey, for reading the Australian for me. But strangely, your article made me curious what laughable logic leaps were actually in, “Janet Albrechtsen’s predictable 1165-word spray”. Unfortunately, when I clicked on the link, I was stopped in my trek to Planet Janet by their paywall. Damn, even though the subscription fee was minuscule, it was enough to stamp out my curiosity. And of course, going to the newsagent to buy a copy is totally out of the question, as I would probably feel more guilt, than when I was teenager, skulking out of the store with a rolled up copy of Penthouse under my arm.
The scenario reminds me of that scene in Star Wars where a morally-reawakened Darth Vader chucks the bad guy into a ventilation shaft where he falls flailing and sparking all the way down. The hysterical shrieking of the unAustralian and News deLimited trolls suggests they feel like the bad guy. I’m thinking of cellaring a bottle of Grange to toast the day they all go down the gurgler.
Could you please write in full sentences, so that readers like me can understand?
If you’re reading The Australian on my behalf, Crikey, I trust it’s a free copy as many years ago I vowed never to hand over money to Murdoch & to ban his detritus from the premises.
Well, well Rupert’s sock puppets are going into overdrive, expect more of this for the remainder of this one term government. Or until the ABC has been cowed down. The Sly News muppets will have converted it to the we report fair and balanced – you decide modus operandi. A pox on the oz rag and its American wrinkly media mogul.